When one thinks of Walt Disney, naturally you often think of the many great projects that were produced by the company that bears his name. Movies or theme parks, for example. But there is another side of the man that often tends to be overlooked. That of what he did to relax. The things he enjoyed to divert his focus away from the pressures of managing those many projects. The Walt Disney Family Museum has opened a wonderful new exhibition that takes guests for a look at some of those diversions...

Ah, yes... the inevitable annual price increases at Disneyland . As the modern era of stockholder value demands that double digit profits continue, who can be truly surprised when these come along? But, wait! There is a bit of a wrinkle this year. Those wily folks in the offices at Disney have decided to suspend the sales of the Southern California Annual Pass . Depending upon who spins the tale out here in the blogosphere on the Net, this can be read as a simple adjustment or the oncoming rush of...

On the subject of Walt Disney, a somewhat common thread is how well he placed people where their talents could do the best for a particular project. Plenty of good tales over the years of how people realized what they were best at after Walt "set them on the path". In one case, the person in question never met Walt Disney. Yet his work at the Studio on a particular project has influenced generations of artists. And his time inside the gates was surprisingly short. Walt Disney Family Museum...

It's no secret that animation played a big role in the life of Walt Disney and the company that bears his name. A visit to the Walt Disney Family Museum offers guests the opportunity to learn about it. And usually, the process of two-dimensional, such as hand-drawn animation, is how the story unfolds. That is, until this new exhibit at the WDFM. " Between Frames: The Magic Behind Stop Motion Animation " offers museum visitors a bit of a look into the process. Now oddly enough, stop...

Hope you're ready to join in the fun when Walt's Sierra Adventures when it departs for Reno on Saturday, March 17th. Yes, that is St Patrick's Day but it isn't a wee joke of the little folks that has this trip starting in Emeryville that morning. No, that fault lies a bit to the south. The San Andreas Fault to be precise. Before October 17th, 1989. Amtrak trains heading out of the Bay Area stopped at a station in Oakland. In a neighborhood whose prime had passed a long time back....

Fans of the Disney California Adventure (yes, they do exist) have known for some time that the impending Buena Vista Street project would bring changes to the entrance to the theme park. As the Golden Gate Bridge makeover is well underway, the next phase of this project starts to take shape on Monday, August 1st. The shops of the Sunshine Plaza will emerge as a version of Los Angeles that greeted Walt Disney when he arrived from Kansas City in 1923. Several of those locations in the Sunshine Plaza...

Gene Roddenberry 's " Star Trek " is often admired for its appeal to the fans. Who can blame them? Looking back to the times when the show first aired, there was a great deal of uncertainty in our lives. The USA was fighting an increasingly unpopular conflict in Southeast Asia. Racial tensions were unsettled at the least. The future did not look all that rosy. The Star Trek cast. Image courtesy of Garfield Lane Productions Yet, here was a television show that gave hope for future. A...

While digging through some boxes in the garage, Roger Colton uncovers some paper souvenirs from earlier visits to the "Happiest Place on Earth." Which make Mr. Colton wonder: What sorts of emphemera will future Disneyland fans treasure? ...

Tired of stories about Disney films that are supposedly unperforming? Well, Roger Colton turns your attention toward Warner Bros. Studios. Which has had such a long cold streak at the box office this year, you'd think that their corporate headquarters was located in Nome...

In the second installment of JHM's three-part series about this new Warner Bros. release, Roger Colton talks with Ken Mitchroney about many of the in-jokes & film influences that can be found in this animated feature...

In the first installment of this new JHM series about Warner Bros. upcoming animated release, Roger Colton talks with executive producer Keith Alcorn about what DNA Productions did to turn John Nickle's charming childrens book into a major motion picture...

Now that Roger Colton's home from Anaheim, he can finally organize his thoughts (as well as all of those pictures that he took this past Saturday night) and talk about what it was really like when Hollywood took over "The Happiest Place on Earth"...

Mr. Colton must have pulled on his cranky pants before heading out to the cinema this week. For while he obviously enjoyed John Lasseter's latest film ... Roger can't help but point out where this picture could have been improved...

With this week's column, Roger Colton weighs in on Chronicle Books' new making-of volume. Is "The Art of Cars" really King of the Road? Or just a Pixar publication that you should probably pass on by?...

Roger Colton reveals the winners of his earn-a-pair-of-tickets-to-the-"Cars"-premiere contest, as these lucky JHM readers share their favorite family stories about auto trips to the "Happiest Place on Earth"...